History Recap / PersonOfInterestS04E21

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Reese praises Fusco, causing the latter to ask if he's feeling well. It's actually for saving his life in the previous episode.

* StandardFemaleGrabArea: Shaw being hauled into a Decima vehicle, though it's likely she's either weak from surgery or drugged.

** Shelley when she realizes Control is going to kill her.

* PistolWhipping: Shelley is on the receiving end of this from Control after hitting her BerserkButton.

* PreMortemOneLiner / ShutUpHannibal: Control responds to Shelley's NewEraSpeech with one:

* SmugSnake: Shelley, when her mask comes off.

* BeneathTheMask: Shelley drops the frightened schoolteacher act after Control shows photographic evidence that she's working for Samaritan.

* RuleOfSymbolism: Elias making use of the pneumatic tube system, once the cutting edge communication system of its day.

* ItHasBeenAnHonor[=/=]VillainRespect
-->'''Elias:''' You're an honorable man, John. It's been nice knowing you.

** Fusco reprimands Reese for going off alone with no backup in the previous episode.

* IHaveAFamily

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Reese actually praises Fusco, causing the latter to ask if he's feeling well. It's actually for saving his life in the previous episode.

* SchizoTech: Elias restores the defunct pneumatic mail network so he can have a means of communication that can bypass phone taps, and smuggling weapons into secure government buildings.

* TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers: As evidence against Shelly, Control produces photos of this so-called schoolteacher meeting the DoubleAgent in the park and a coffee shop…and walking down a corridor in the White House.

--> '''Finch''': Have you forgotten [[DragonInChief her]] so quickly? You've already discarded her and you're a human being, imagine how quickly [[AIIsACrapshoot that thing that you've created]] would discard you. Do you ever lay awake at night, wondering if one day it will see you as a threat? Or worse, as irrelevant?
--> '''Greer''': How arrogant of you to think that any of us are anything but irrelevant.

--> '''Root''': Lay a hand on him, and I'll kill you.

-->'''Martine:''' ''(about killing Harold)'' Doesn't look like much of a fighter. Bet he'll die without so much as a peep.\\
''({{Beat}}. Root [[NeckSnap snaps her neck]].)''\\

-->'''Link''': Whose name was on the account?\\
''(Dominic pulls out a gun shoots Link dead four times)''.\\
'''Dominic''': It's yours, Link.

* CosmicPlaything: Suddenly everything goes to hell for the Machine: first it had to give in to Root's GameOfChicken and reveal Shaw's location it knew very well was too dangerous to go to and Root refuses to listen to reason. Then it has to give up its location to save Root and Harold once they get captured.

* FakeShemp: Shaw being led into a car. However, we also see her in a reflection in the passenger-side mirror of a car and she is definitely not a Fake Shemp here.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Samaritan's dialog at the end of the episode is [[spoiler:a map of the U.S. power grid, revealing the fact that that's where the Machine moved itself an episode early, for people who know what they're looking at.]]

* HitlerCam: Used for comedy when Lenny stands up and Finch realises just how big he is.
* HopeSpot: However, Finch and Root are still alive to protect it. If the Machine had let them die, Samaritan would still have been able to get the location from Root's implant.

** He asks Reese and Fusco to give up Finch's location - but Fusco [[DefiantToTheEnd mocks him]] (and doesn't know anyway), and Reese [[UndyingLoyalty would die for Finch.]]
* InternalReveal: Finch and Root learn Shaw is alive and held by Decima, which the audience has known since [[Recap/PersonOfInterestS04E13 "MIA."]]
* IronicEcho: Dominic asks Elias how it feels to be responsible for [[Recap/PersonOfInterestS04E09 the death of his friend]]. After baiting Dominic into killing his own [[TheDragon Dragon]], Elias asks him the same question. [[{{Foreshadowing}} Foreshadowed]] by Elias in the earlier exchange: " Do you really want to know? Be careful what you wish for, Dominic."

* ItHasBeenAnHonor / VillainRespect

-->'''Root''': I need to admit this man on a TDO. 72-hour involuntary hold. He's an increasingly dangerous paranoid schizophrenic. ''[looks at Harold]'' Unless he'd care to disagree?
-->'''Harold''': [[[{{Beat}} beat]]] It's not paranoia if they're really out to get you.
-->'''Doctor''': Who exactly is after you?
-->'''Harold''': The Brotherhood, the federal government... an artificial superintelligence, obviously.
-->'''Doctor''': What's your name, sir?
-->'''Harold''': I go by many names, all derived from species of birds.
-->'''Root''': I'd mark him as a John Doe. [[[{{Beat}} beat]]] He basically lives in the subway.

-->'''Root:''' You admitted ''me'' to the funny farm once. Turn-about is fair play.
-->'''Finch:''' I don't recall dressing ''you'' like a homeless dope fiend.

* ThereAreNoCoincidences: Invoked by Control to get Shelley to admit she's working for Samaritan.

* VehicularSabotage / FakingTheDead: Shelly's brakes are tampered with so she crashes. Control's men then plant the dead body of a blonde woman and a [[FieryCoverUp bomb in the front seat]], to MakeItLookLikeAnAccident.

--> '''The Machine:''' You are wrong, Harold. You are not interchangeable. [[ILetGwenStacyDie I failed to save Sameen.]] I will not fail you now.

-->'''Elias:''' I might have lied about a few things, like the message your men intercepted. . . . Well, good news, there's no rat in your organization. Bad news, ''you need a new right-hand man.''

** The Machine always refers to Finch as Admin. She called him Harold before she gave her location up.
** Finch also switches from 'Miss Groves' to Root when the latter looks like she's about to jump off the building (though this isn't the first time he's done so).

* YouSaidYouWouldLetThemGo: Averted; the Machine insists Greer's men let Finch and Root go before she reveals her location, and they make no effort to recapture them at this stage.

* NotSoDifferent: Shelly says that Control's actions [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans are no different from what Samaritan is doing.]]

** Root calls back to when [[Recap/PersonOfInterestS02E22 Finch had her admitted to a mental hospital]].

* TheBigBoard: Root has an OhCrap moment when she peeks into a room and sees Greer standing in front of an electronic board showing Samaritan's worldwide operations.

* VehicularSabotage / FakingTheDead: Shelly's brakes are tampered with so she crashes. Control's men then plant the dead body of a blonde woman and a bomb in the front seat, to MakeItLookLikeAnAccident.

** Samaritan knew Root had the only code of the Machine in her cochlear implant, and would come running to save Shaw.

** Root's [[LoveMakesYouCrazy crazy love]] for Shaw causes her and Harold to run headlong into what both he and the Machine suspected was a trap, resulting in Samaritan, whose own search yielded no results at all, finally getting the Machine's location.

* ObviouslyATrap: Shaw's phone call from the dead.

* YouHaveNoIdeaWhoYourDealingWith: Shelly dropping the mask.

* BeneathTheMask: Shelley's mask comes off after Control shows photographic evidence that she's working for Samaritan.

* ForcedToWatch: Root says that Finch doesn't have to watch her get her head cut open. Martine threatens to make Root watch her killing Finch instead.

-->'''Elias:''' You're an honorable man, John. It's been nice knowing you.

-->'''Root:''' You admitted ''me'' to the funny farm once. Turn-about is fair play.

* VehicularSabotage / FakingTheDead: Shelly's brakes are tampered with so she crashes. Control's men then plant the dead body of a blonde woman and a bomb in the front seat, to MakeItLookLikeAnAccident.
* WeNeedADistraction: On the instructions of the Machine, Finch tells a large mental patient that some orderlies stole his spaceman toy. He promptly goes berserk.

* PreMortemOneLiner: Control responds to Shelley's NewEraSpeech with one:

* YouCalledMeXItMustBeSerious: The Machine always refers to Finch as Admin. She called him Harold before she gave her location up.

* TotalitarianUtilitarian: Samaritan's plan is revealed: "[[DeadlyEuphemism The Correction]]," during which Samaritan will eliminate all those it deems deviant, aberrant, or unfit to live in its new world.